


Broken Dolls

by asdflove



Series: Dolls [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abuse, F/F, Pearl Solidarity (Steven Universe), both physical and emotional, but to start with, gonna have to update these tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25143412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asdflove/pseuds/asdflove
Summary: A series of one shots of various lengths in continuity with Dollhouse in no particular order. Just whatever order I happen to write them.Unlike in Dollhouse, which is all Pearl's POV, this jumps around. Though it still starts with Pearl hahah.
Relationships: Blue Diamond's Pearl & Pearl (Steven Universe), Blue Diamond's Pearl/Pearl (Steven Universe), Original Gem Character(s) & Original Gem Character(s) (Steven Universe), Pearl/Pink Diamond (Steven Universe)
Series: Dolls [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821400
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Just writing stuff in Dollhouse's continuity outside of that main story. Just things that won't leave my head. Starting here, with Nacre and Pearl after Pearl's first trip back to the Reef, when she was still with White Diamond.

Pearl wasn’t with her Diamond for more than a few months before she ended up sitting in the Reef, her back against the wall and sobbing incoherently from the pain, and a sob morphs into a muffled scream into her hand as her whole body  _ glitches _ , nearly losing it’s shape, and the feeling like she’s coming apart even worse, and she clasps a hand over her cracked gem, desperately trying to make sure it stays together. 

“Get up.”

Pearl’s vision is blurry as she tries to look up at the other gem, and she blinks a few times, shifting the position of her hand over her gem to try to see her better.

“ _ Get up _ .” She reaches down, grabbing Pearl’s wrist and pulling her up forcefully.

“I-I’m sorry, the,” She gasps between sobs. “Overhead- she- she told me to- she told me to wait here-”

“Yes, yes, Shell. I’ll fix you right up, you’re fine. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, but you’re  _ fine _ .”

“See me again…?” She mumbles faintly, letting herself get tugged along, as unsteady and unstable as she is. 

“You wouldn’t remember, but I’m the one who made you. Stand  _ there _ .” She positions Pearl in the middle of a room, and then steps back. “And take your hand off your gem.”

Pearl reluctantly does as she’s told, and it is relatively quick and mostly painless and… her gem is good as new. She runs her fingertips across the perfectly smooth stone, letting out a sigh of relief that the pain and instability is gone, but it’s hard to stop crying. 

The other gem gently takes her hands and guides out of the room to sit down, and just quietly lets her get the tears out before saying anything. 

“Alright. Tell me what happened, so we can work to prevent it from happening again.”

“I don’t know! I was just- I was just trying to do what she asked! And I- I don’t know… did I do something wrong… she gets so angry with me for the tiniest mistake, and this time she just- she just…”

It was in an instant, that massive hand sweeping her aside with such force that she went flying back, slamming  _ hard _ into the wall, and for a second it felt like her world ended as deep cracks spread through her gem, and she hit the ground.

“… Oh dear. It’s my fault, really.” She gently takes both of Pearl’s hands in hers, squeezing them gently. “I made you wrong, and our Diamond has  _ very _ high standards, you see. Just do your best, alright? And remember this. Be  _ afraid _ of her, it might be your best chance to live.”

“… You…  _ want _ me to be afraid?” Pearl stares at their hands, blinking slowly. She  _ is _ afraid. White Diamond is terrifying, and especially so after  _ that _ . But being afraid is terrible in it’s own right, and… 

“ _ Yes _ . I know, that’s stressful, and you don’t want to go through with it, but the alternative is that she shatters you some day. If you’re  _ afraid _ you’ll remember why it’s so important to toe the line.”

“… If you made me wrong, why did you give me to her?”

“Oh, well…” Nacre sighs. “I didn’t want to. I would have spared you the misery, but that would require telling our Diamond that her custom pearl would have been delayed by my error and… and she would not have been happy.”

“Would… Would she have hurt you like… like that?” Pearl wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, and especially not this other gem who’s being so… nice to her. She seems to actually care about Pearl… 

“It’s definitely a possibility. Do you understand why I had to give you to her? I really didn’t want to…”

Pearl nods slightly, which gets a soft smile from the other gem, who squeezes her hands again. 

“Dearie, I’m going to do my best to help you through this, but you have to be  _ careful _ . Just remember how that felt, and do  _ everything you can _ to stop it from happening again. Hold onto that  _ fear _ . It’s going to save your life.”

Pearl nods again, but she feels uneasy about it, despite the reasoning presented. Is… Is being afraid all the time… is that… Is it worth it?


	2. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White Diamond has a new pearl, and the other Diamond's pearls are interested to meet her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bloop these are literally just tiny bits of the story I can't get out of my head but have no place in the Main Thing that is Dollhouse. Updates here are going to be super random

Blue

It’d been a long time since White Diamond had a pearl, after her previous pearl ended up in pieces for a mistake, but she has a new one now. None of the other three have seen her at all before today, and they’re whispering about it as White is the last to arrive to the ball, being thrown in honor of the finishing of one of Yellow Diamond’s colonies or something like that.

Pearl really isn’t sure what the ball is for. It’s not for  _ her _ Diamond, Blue. She knows that much, but not much else. She didn’t care enough to look into it.

She loves these balls. There’s not a whole lot of attention payed to them, and so many different gems to try to draw. And good company, to see the other two pearls. And maybe a third friend, with this new pearl…

“I don’t think she’ll last.” Yellow’s Pearl says quietly, glancing up at White’s empty throne. “Even a  _ perfect _ pearl wouldn’t hold up to her expectations. The only person that holds up to White’s standards, is  _ White _ .”

“I dunno,” Their pink counterpart says slowly, looking up at the White Throne as well. “Maybe it will work out this time. She wouldn’t have gotten a new pearl if she wasn’t willing to give her a fair chance, right?”

“Yes, yes,  _ BUT, _ a fair chance with White is hardly  _ fair _ !”

Pearl doesn’t want to be so negative, but… she’s probably right. Fair with  _ White Diamond _ isn’t really fair. It’s sad to even imagine what that must be like, to be her pearl… 

White Diamond arrives then, and after a bit of commotion, the new pearl takes her place by them, standing a few steps back, with her arms crossed behind her back and her head ducked.

She’s very pretty, with light grey thigh high socks, dark grey ballet shoes with ribbons, a white leotard with a diamond cut out, and a sparkling translucent dark grey dress over that. Her short grey hair is longer on the left side, and curls to cover her left eye.

Hesitating only a moment to make sure White Diamond isn’t  _ watching _ them, she takes a step backward to be standing directly next to her. Even if she isn’t around for long… well, that’s all the more reason to be  _ nice _ . She can’t have a particularly happy life after all. She might as well do her very small part to make it better if she can, right?

“Hey.” She says quietly, and the other pearl stiffens up, and quickly glances up at White Diamond’s throne.

“Don’t worry,” She reaches out and takes the other’s hand into hers. “She’s not paying us any mind.”

The hand is quickly pulled away, crossed back behind her back, but the other pearl does  _ look _ at her now, and she has to stop herself from gasping as she looks into her wide, terrified…  _ blue _ eyes.

Oh. Oh  _ no _ .

“Please don’t.” She says, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”

Oh, oh yes, that’s understandable. She’s lucky those eyes alone weren’t a death sentence. It’s not often they hear of an off-colour pearl even making it out of the Reef. Let alone for a Diamond, Let alone for  _ White Diamond _ .

She must be so frightened.

“… I’m sorry. I’ll leave you be.” And she steps back in line with the other three, looking over her shoulder again at the white pearl.

“What’d she say? Does she seem nice? You guys didn’t talk long.”

“Of  _ course _ not,” Yellow’s draws out slowly. “She probably has some sense to at least  _ try _ to stay on White Diamond’s good side.”

“She does, but I don’t know if it will do her any good…” She covers her eyes with her hand under her bangs and exhales slowly. “She’s  _ off-colour _ . Her eyes…”

Those blue eyes of hers  _ are _ going to be a death sentence, even if it’s not immediately. A tiny little flaw that means she’ll  _ never _ be good enough for White Diamond.

It’s really a shame. No one deserves to be harvested for something out of their control, but… that’s just how things work. What is  _ she _ supposed to do about it? She can’t even help her feel better  _ now _ , because it might get her in trouble with White…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah it's so awkward to write multiple pearls in one scene without nicknames but they don't HAVE nicknames yet at this time. Like, Not-Volley has several different nicknames that Pink calls her, but it's not the same and the other two don't have nicknames (yet).


End file.
